[Basic family health program in Magdalena Medio y Bajo]. / Programa de salud basica familiar en el Magdalena Medio y Bajo.

PIP: The Program of Information, Education, and Services for Basic Family Health Care in Magdalena Medio and Bajo was designed to increase knowledge and use of contraception and to improve basic health practices and nutrition in the region, which includes municipios belonging to 9 different departments and a total population of 1,720,000. Poverty levels in the area are high. During the 1st year of the project, which was underway from February 1988-May 1991, home visits were made to inform each family about basic family health, to weigh and measure children under 5 not receiving health care elsewhere, and to refer families to the nearest health services. Talks were presented to small groups on family planning, intestinal parasites, sexually transmitted diseases, nutrition, vaccination, cancer prevention, malaria, acute diarrhea, and acute respiratory infection. Community workshops were presented in the 2nd year. Community distribution posts were created for contraceptive and other health product distribution. Information and communication materials from PROFAMILIA were used, and other materials were specially designed for the project by the Foundation for Development of Health Education in Colombia. PROFAMILIA's system of service statistics was used for quantitative evaluation of the information and education activities and sales of contraceptives, antiparasitics, and oral rehydration packets of each instructor. In the 3 years of the program, 89.086 cycles of pills, 398,772 condoms, 29,080 vaginal tablets, 209.791 antiparasitics, and 49,305 oral rehydration packets were sold. 9295 talks were presented to 143,227 residents of the region. 22,000 children were enrolled in the growth monitoring program, and almost 40,000 women were referred for prenatal care and cytology. The instructors gave 900 talks to distributors of contraceptives, antiparasitics, and oral rehydration packets. Surveys of women aged 15-49 residing in the municipios covered by the project were conducted at the beginning and end of program activities in order to assess project impact. 1673 women were interviewed in the 1st survey in June-July 1988 and 1660 were interviewed in the 2nd survey in March-April 1991. In general terms, the region of Magdalena Medio and sand Bajo showed important changes in contraceptive prevalence, maternal-child health, knowledge of AIDS, and family violence over the 3 years of the project. Knowledge of contraception improved throughout the region, especially in rural areas. The proportion of women in union using a method increased from 56.7% to 58.0%. There were no overall changes in the proportions of children vaccinated.^ieng